Jeremy: Yep, it will be reverse-merged up from the console version, along with gamepad support, in the relatively near future.
So, I was literally about to order an Xbox one from Amazon because PC split screen has been months and months on the wait list. I figured it wouldn't be added any time soon.
After me agonizing over this purchase, you bring up PC split screen again ... While this is fantastic that it is still in the works, I wish we knew what "relatively soon" meant. Are we talking sometime in 2016, or are we talking sometime in May? If it's gonna be months from now, I want to go ahead and buy an Xbox just to play this NOW. If it's next month, I'll wait. But as of now I still have no idea which it will be. The struggle is real ...
Tell ya what, if one of the Ark Devs will respond to this and get PC split screen in for may or even next month, I'll donate 100$ to the dev team. I'm serious. C'mon devs... Ease my worries and let us know an ETA.